Stories by Patty Wetli

While awaiting the city’s verdict on its permit application to start up a metal shredding and recycling operation on the Southeast Side, Reserve Management Group is in the process of acquiring another metal recycling business in Humboldt Park. 

Opponents of a permit application for a metal shredding facility on the Southeast Side question whether public comments will fall on deaf ears.

Strong winds are creating dangerous conditions along the lakeshore, prompting the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications to issue a lakeshore flood advisory until 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Is there a middle ground between obliterating leaves and letting nature take its course? We asked an expert from the Chicago Botanic Garden.

More than 25,000 migrating sandhill cranes are making a pit stop at Indiana’s Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. The bird’s numbers have rebounded thanks to wetland conservation efforts, but now climate change threatens to undo that progress. 

Ready or not, the holidays have arrived. Here’s how some of Chicago’s most beloved traditions and experiences have adapted to the coronavirus pandemic to help bring some holiday cheer to 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has put a halt to this year’s Toys for Tots Motorcycle Parade, which had been scheduled for Dec. 6, but organizers are still collecting toys for children in need.

Throughout the pandemic, nature has proved its worth as an outlet and resource, benefiting people’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. Now the question is, will people return the favor?

A red-tailed hawk, stoically perched atop a chain-link fence, was spotted Saturday outside a Jewel-Osco in Roscoe Village. Raptors are more common in the city than most people think, said a local hawk expert.

A quartet of penguins from the Shedd Aquarium paid a visit to Soldier Field. Could this be the secret weapon the Bears need to take down the Packers during Sunday’s showdown?

In the midst of what feels like the cancellation of everything, Chicago’s biggest outdoor holiday light displays are still happening — albeit in a socially distanced way. Want wattage? We’ve got the scoop on where to go. 

With tighter mitigations in place due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Chicago Park District and surrounding forest preserve districts have suspended programs indefinitely.

Customers won’t be able to board the Holiday Train or Holiday Bus but the CTA’s festive fleet will still spread holiday cheer across the city.

Chicago’s Justice of the Pies was one of 31 businesses named to the Office of Tourism’s Illinois Made program, which boosts the profile of the state’s makers, creators and artisans.

Traveling more than 2,000 miles every year, the migration journey of monarch butterflies links the United States and Mexico in a way no trade agreement or cultural exchange ever could.

Chicago's museums are facing a second shutdown and an uncertain future. Many closures are open-ended or will last at least through the remainder of 2020.

With the city and Cook County under stay-at-home advisories due to COVID 19, the Shedd Aquarium has decided to close its doors through the remainder of the year, targeting Jan. 2 for reopening, the aquarium announced.

General Iron’s parent company has applied for its final permit to operate its metal-shredding operation on the Southeast Side, but federal officials have asked the city to hold off on making a decision.

“Black Friday has been around for a long time, but what has been missing is the Blackness,” said the creators of the program, which encourages people to support Black-owned businesses in Chicago this holiday season.

Hundreds of poinsettia plants were grown for the annual holiday flower show at the Lincoln Park Conservatory, and they need homes now that the event has been canceled.

On the promotional trail for his new memoir “A Promised Land,” the former president sat down with “60 Minutes” for an interview that aired Sunday.

In the midst of a surge in COVID-19 cases, health officials are now warning Chicagoans about possible exposure to another infectious disease.

From a sociological perspective, we rake because no one wants to be the neighbor with the messy lawn, but ecologically speaking, the benefits of a little mess outweigh the merits of a pristine yard.

On Wednesday, Illinois set a new single-day record of COVID-19 cases as state health officials reported 145 virus-related deaths. Officials are urging residents to work from home and limit non-essential activity in the coming weeks.

The former Woodlawn home of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is now in the hands of the nonprofit Blacks in Green. Founder Naomi Davis shares the group’s vision for the historic site.

A strong cold front is moving toward Chicago, bringing fast-moving thunderstorms, plunging temperatures and the threat of damaging wind gusts and tornadoes.